2013-South America-On The Carnival Splendor

Description & Accessibility

This was a trip that we simply could not pass up, but I must say that there was many organizational issues on the part of middle management on this cruise.

Getting answers was not the issue but getting correct answers was, it was like the left hand of middle management did not know what the right hand was doing. I know they have only done this route twice but still some things could have been better prepared.

Well it started in Long Beach poor organization with the check in procedures. Shore check in was very poor. Some passengers did not know they required a brazil visa and some did not have it, and they did not know how to handle that from what I heard, it was super bowl Sunday and some workers I heard did not show up for work. Normally people with disabilities get processed quite quickly, this was an exception, not enough wheelchairs for people that needed it and could not endure the excessive wait. Tour leaders was trying to pull rank and take the few wheelchairs that where available. By the time it was all done the ship was 4 hours late leaving port.

The ship was arriving late at several of the ports combined with the fact that poor information on time zones and wrong information being provided to enquires at the service desk and then finding out time changes late on the evening before caused issues for people that had arranged private tours including myself.

Cabo San Lucas Mexico was a tender port and had a shore based tender service there, there was even a ramp from ship to tender boat near mid ship. That was nice as I did not have to do any stairs and never had to transfer from my travel scooter, the tender boat had roll on capabilities. Now the next tender port I enquired at the shore excursions desk if the procedure would be the same and I was told it would be the same as Cabo San Lucas. Then the night before the next tender port a notice was sent out to the accessible cabins outright banning all motorized wheelchairs / scooters from the tenders. I asked that morning where tender stickers was being issued that they did not think I could use the tender, so I just gave up and only my wife got to shore at the remaining tender ports. Normally they are not required to carry any mobility device than weighs more than 100 pounds onto a tender boat, and I can do some steps with assistance and has never been an issue on any other cruise I have taken before. My travel scooter weighs 108 pounds but quickly comes apart into light weight sections making it under the 100 pound limit. They where wrong in categorizing every battery powered mobility device the same and banning everything.

In Valparaiso, Chile where leg 1 ended and leg 2 started, passengers that where getting off and not coming back had to get off on a certain gangway, and those on back to back cruise legs had to get off on a different gangway. Problem was the back to back gangway was on a much higher deck. I tried to get off on the lower deck and was absolutely refused and forced to get off on the higher deck. The higher deck had an dangerous obscene angle on the ramp far beyond what is considered safe for any mobility device. One lady in a manual wheelchair was in tears when she actually got to land as the two people pushing the wheelchair had problems controlling it the person above was letting go of it at times. This was so unsafe that they should have never forced mobility impaired passengers to use that gangway. Coming back on the ship I did not even ask I went directly to the lower safer route and simply told them I was not coming on at the other dangerous angles entrance and this time they did not object.

In Buenos Aires where Leg 2 ended and leg 3 started they had both exits on the same lower deck close to each other perhaps they finally learned their lesson with this.

Next we where suppose to be going through the Chilean fjords they where even getting every one prep up with a lecture about them in the theater and stating they would be getting there soon, then a couple of hours later the captain came on the public address system stating there was an error in communication and we would not be going there. An angry mob hit the service desk within minutes and security was brought in. They gave each passenger $ 100 refund on there ship accounts.

Arriving in New York the only ones that got off the ship in a timely matter was people with no checked in luggage. Everyone else waited hours to get off. Not enough luggage trolleys on shore, porters hard to locate. Poor organization on shore again with pre-arranged carnival transfers to airport poorly organized no one knew what bus went where. Large volumes of people where on the verge of fights, almost everyone was missing flights. When we finally got on the bus one of the organizers got on and thanked everyone for not killing him or throwing him in the water. The ship docked at 7 am our flight was at 3:40 pm and we arrived at the airport at 3:40 pm as the plane was taking off, in addition the carnival transfer bus let people off on the arrivals level not the departure level. We managed to rebook a later flight.

Now beyond the middle management issues the cruise was absolutely great, accessibility was very good for the most part, outside decks on deck 11 and 12 was easy to get to. The mini golf on deck 13 had stairs.

The regular staff on the ship was second to none. If they where do that route again I certainly would like to do it again with hopefully better middle management skills.

Passports:

Both Americans and Canadians required a tourist visa for Brazil. Passengers who did not process this but required it I heard where going to be forced off the ship before the first port in Brazil, fortunately carnival was able on their behalf obtain visa’s for those who did not have prior to arriving in Brazil at a high cost I heard to those passengers. We did our research in advance and had obtained those visa’s well before the trip started at the Brazil embassy in Ottawa Canada. Do your research do not rely on travel agents to tell you – you and you alone are responsible for knowing entrance requirements for all countries you wish to visit.

VISA HQ [.ca]

VISA HQ [.com]

Use the above websites to check the requirements for different countries.

Passports where taken as part of the check in procedure in Long Beach and you given a claim receipt. No face to face appearance was required anywhere but officials from each country would come on board the cruise ship at the port before entry into each country and check all passports for everyone on board. Passports where given back after the last port in Brazil, or in the event you only took one one or two legs of the trip the passport would be given back the day before you left the ship. All the usual entry and exit stamps would be in the passport when you finally got your passport back.

By: Donald Kerr